The Department of Defense today announced $200 million in awards for defense-related basic research projects under the fiscal year 2025 Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI). These competitive grants will allow 26 teams spread across 67 U.S. academic institutions to tackle some of the nation's most complex scientific challenges.
Since its inception in 1985, the Department's MURI program has brought together teams of investigators from multiple disciplines to generate collective insights, facilitating the development of cutting-edge technologies to address the Department's most pressing needs and problems.
"By deploying a mix of perspectives and approaches, MURI projects foster the kind of bold, cross-cutting research that can spark breakthroughs and push the boundaries of what's possible in science and engineering," said Dr. Jason Day, the research policy director within the Basic Research Office in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. "The highly competitive program, which complements the Department's single-investigator basic research grants, has made immense contributions to current and future military capabilities and produced numerous commercial sector applications."
Notable MURI achievements include breakthroughs in cold-atom quantum methods with potential applications in quantum sensing and communication, as well as advances in pulsed magnetic field propagation and Doppler radar detection leading to new detection physics for landmines.
The fiscal year 2025 competition identified three proposals as eligible to receive an additional $1.5 million each over the five-year award term specifically to support the participation of minority-serving institutions. This addition to the program encourages participation from a larger group of universities and helps the Department to develop the next generation of scientists and engineers.
The Army Research Office, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Office of Naval Research solicited fiscal year 2025 proposals in 26 topic areas of strategic importance to the Department. After a merit-based review of 382 white papers, a panel of experts narrowed the pool to a subset of 95 full proposals, from which the 26 final awards were selected. The average award amount is $7.5 million over five years, subject to satisfactory research progress and the availability of funds.
